Ballistic Moon’s remake of Until Dawn is proving one of our most difficult review assignments of the year. Here’s the rub: Supermassive Games’ cult interactive movie is still very much one of the best examples of the genre you can find on any console, and we highly recommend you play it. However, the PS4 version is just nine-years-old, and while this new-gen re-release does demonstrate some seismic graphical upgrades, it’s largely the same experience at its core – with no discounts or incentives for existing owners. To make matters worse, the original runs at 60fps with PS5 backwards compatibility, while this new edition targets an inconsistent 30fps, which feels like a downgrade.
First, the good stuff: this is still a fantastic game. Inspired by teen slashers, it’d mostly be forgettable in movie theatres (good luck to its upcoming big screen adaptation, then), but its interactivity makes it memorable and unique. You play as a group of different dislikeable teens, all hateable for a variety of reasons. After a prank goes awry in a remote log cabin, the cast decide to meet in the winter wilderness a year later to pay their respects to their fallen friends – and also frolic in the snow while they’re at it. Things take a turn for the worst when a series of grisly murders unfold, and a host of red herrings emerge to keep you on your toes.
The writing and performances are pitch-perfect, and it’s a surprisingly social experience, as friends and family will all want to share their opinion on who you should save – or, indeed, leave to die. The game is also paced brilliantly: the constant switching perspectives and gradual foreboding really draw you in, before the figurative sh*t hits the fan. With a running time of about eight hours, the game is approximately the same length as four horror movies, but it never outstays its welcome – and there’s replay value in repeated playthroughs, as you explore different outcomes.
While the story mostly follows the same beat-by-beat structure as its predecessor, the opening has been extended to give a bit more context to the prank played on Hannah Washington, which leads to her untimely demise and overshadows all of the events that follow thereafter. We actually went back to the original to compare, and we much prefer this new opening – especially with the inclusion of La Roux’s In for the Kill, which fits perfectly. However, it should be noted that not all of the music alterations hit as hard as this one, which is a shame.
The other big change to this version, visuals aside, is how the camera has been brought in closer to the characters. While there are instances where the original fixed angles persist, other moments offer an over-the-shoulder perspective, similar to what you’d find in third-person shooters like Resident Evil 4 or The Last of Us. Personally, we’re indifferent to this change: it does feel more modern, but the controls are still largely quite slow and sluggish, so we’re not convinced it makes a meaningful improvement to the game. That said, it doesn’t ruin the experience either, so it is what it is.
Graphically, this is a powerhouse, though. Running in Unreal Engine 5, the character models and lighting are extraordinary – even if the original motion capture feels a bit outdated these days. Ballistic Moon has made some minor artistic changes: the blue hue of the original has been abandoned in favour of more natural colour grading, while the lighting of the opening scenes has been changed to convey a more gradual progression into night. Going back to the original, all of the characters look like porcelain dolls compared to this native PS5 version – it really does look sensational.
But that comes at a cost: the original, while inconsistent on PS4 hardware, runs at a largely smooth 60fps through PS5 backwards compatibility – while its remake struggles to hold a steady 30fps. It’s not a game that relies on a high frame rate – it’s filmic in nature, after all – but even with the new visuals, it does feel like a step backwards to effectively cut performance in half. The problem is perhaps exacerbated by the fact the title takes regular plunges, meaning you’re looking at under 30fps a lot of the time. This is a game that feels like it needs the PS5 Pro, which is never going to go down well.
At least the other PS5 specific improvements fare better. The DualSense’s haptics are well incorporated to add extra tension to dramatic moments, while the adaptive triggers are used to demonstrate indecision in difficult moments; pulling either L2 or R2 to make a choice will require some physical exertion, forcing you to commit. All of these features can be toggled on and off in the settings, along with a suite of other accessibility options that make QTEs easier to complete and so on. As always, it’s good to see Sony’s commitment to accessibility extended here.
But other than that, aside from a small change to one of the game’s endings which potentially sets up a sequel, this is the same campaign you’ve played before. And that makes recommending it tricky: clearly a lot of work has gone in to overhauling the visuals and tweaking the gameplay in certain instances, but we’re not sure it represents an increase in price from $19.99/£15.99 to $59.99/£59.99 – especially with no upgrade path. In fact, while we personally like and appreciate a lot of the improvements, we’re not even sure we’d recommend this remake over the original considering the costs involved. That’s a huge problem.
Conclusion
Until Dawn drags a contemporary classic into a new generation, and its interactive teen slasher silliness more than holds up today. With vastly enhanced graphics and minor gameplay tweaks, this is still a highly recommended game. The problem is it costs three times as much as its nine-year-old predecessor, and doesn’t have an upgrade path. For all of its grisly glamour, that makes this remake a tough sell – especially when it runs at half the frame rate of its predecessor when played using PS5 backwards compatibility.